Julia Gillard and Arnold Schwarzenegger join forces on climate change

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have written a joint opinion piece to urge global action on climate change.

Ms Gillard will meet the Hollywood star in Perth today.

The opinion piece, published in News Limited newspapers, stresses that the two regions are not alone in acting on climate change, and says that by the end of the year more than 1 billion people will be living in a state or country where a price on carbon is in place.

"California and Australia have a lot in common - climate change threatens our fragile environments and aggravates serious bushfires, droughts and floods, which put our important agricultural industries at risk," they write.

"Because of these similar challenges, even though we are leaders from different sides of the political spectrum, we strongly agree on two fundamental ideas - that taking action on climate change can no longer be delayed and that such actions can succeed beyond partisan politics.

"By the end of 2013, more than a billion people will be living in a state or country where a price on carbon pollution is in place, demonstrating that we are not alone.

"What the Industrial Revolution and the Information Technology Revolution have shown is that the people in regions which lead these transformations prosper the most and the soonest. It is the same with the Clean Energy Revolution."

Gillard addressed sexism issue during fundraiser last night

Last night Ms Gillard appeared alongside British comedian Ben Elton at a Perth fundraiser which had to be moved from a Fremantle school after a political row blew up over the use of school premises for political purposes.

During a Q and A session with Elton, she said she did not think the nation would be exposed to as much commentary about her gender.

"Some things have happened to me in terms of commentary about appearance and about gender - that won't happen in the same way for the next woman who does this job and will happen less for the woman after that," Ms Gillard said.

The PM's comments came after a day dominated by a bitter row over a menu which included crude and offensive references to Ms Gillard's body and was produced for a Liberal fundraiser attended by Mal Brough and Joe Hockey.

The owner of the Brisbane restaurant which hosted the fundraiser says it was a "mock" menu he created as a light-hearted joke and it was not given out on the night.